


Someone Special

by Melacka



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: 31 Days of Ficmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Shopping, F/F, First Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27905122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melacka/pseuds/Melacka
Summary: Faith looked uneasily up at the entrance to the mall. It wasn’t really her normal scene and she’d give almost anything to not have to enter the swirling mass of humanity that was sure to be inside, but she’d made a promise to herself. She was determined to find a decent present for Buffy this year.Or, Faith and Buffy are both clueless idiots about each other, but their hearts are in the right place. And holiday shopping is not for the faint of heart.(Set several years post-Chosen but ignores the comics.)
Relationships: Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers
Comments: 4
Kudos: 46





	Someone Special

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 3 of the 31 Days of Ficmas, the prompt was Shopping. You can find the Prompt List here: https://doctorroseprompts.tumblr.com/post/632802154257825792/its-almost-that-time-of-year-friends-in-fact.
> 
> The prompt list is actually for the Dr Who fandom but I wanted to try my hand at the challenge without only sticking to one fandom.

Faith looked uneasily up at the entrance to the mall. It wasn’t really her normal scene and she’d give almost anything to not have to enter the swirling mass of humanity that was sure to be inside, but she’d made a promise to herself. She was determined to find a decent present for Buffy this year. She was sick of giving her crappy gifts when Buffy always gave her something nice. They’d been spending more and more time with each other in the years since they’d moved to Cleveland together. It started as a simple consequence of their proximity and lack of other options. They both grew tired of the constant soup of teenage hormones that came from training up so many baby slayers, and so it seemed only natural to spend more time together. But over the months and then years they’d been living here, they’d progressed from strained tolerance of each other to tentative friendship to something else entirely. Faith didn’t know how to describe it, not even to herself, but it was like she was too scared to look too closely at it. Like if she tried to define what they were to each other, it would ruin the tentative peace they’d managed to forge. Faith was never one for too much introspection, anyway.

The way she saw it, introspection was only for people who had nothing to hide from. Nothing to fear.

Faith had too many things she was hiding from.

But she was damn near fearless.

She sighed and raised her head, squaring her shoulders as she entered the mall. She looked around at the huge crowds, the tacky decorations and the speakers blaring Christmas carols at full volume. Fighting the instinct to just turn around and walk right out again, she reminded herself what she was doing there. She needed some inspiration for what to get Buffy and she had nearly three hours before Buffy was going to meet her outside, plenty of time to wander through the stores and find something decent but within her price range.

She could always go the safe route and get her a sweater or something. Buffy loved getting new clothes and Faith was reasonably confident that she knew her style enough to pick something she’d like. Or she could get her some jewellery, she’d seen a pair of little cross earrings a month or so ago and thought Buffy might like them. She’d always worn a lot of cross necklaces after all, maybe she’d like to branch out a little. But Faith was worried about sending the wrong message. Friends got each other jewellery, right? It’s not like Buffy would read too much into a simple pair of earrings. And it wasn’t like Faith was going to get her a diamond ring, for god’s sake. Faith smirked at the thought of Buffy’s face if she presented her with a ring on Christmas day. Faith toyed with the idea of finding a cheap one in the kids’ section, just for laughs.

Maybe shopping for Buffy would be fun, after all.

* * *

More than two hours later, Faith was stuck in a small airless room, holding a bloody tissue to her mouth, and glaring at the security guard.

“How long are you plannin’ to keep me here?” she said angrily. “What is this, anyway? Mall jail? Give me a break.”

Faith knew she should just shut up. Antagonising this guy wasn’t the best way to get out of the situation, but her patience was wearing thin. She glanced down at her watch and sighed loudly, she was due to meet Buffy out front in about five minutes.

“We need to establish if any charges will be laid,” the security guard said, sounding thoroughly uninterested.

“Charges?” Faith scoffed. “She attacked me! If anything, she should be charged!”

“Do you want to press charges?” he asked wearily.

“No!” Faith snapped, desperately holding on to the last threads of her self-control. “I _want_ you to let me go, and if that means letting _her_ go as well,” she gestured at the woman across from her, “that’s fine. Let’s just wrap this up, alright? I got better things to do.”

“She attacked me!” the other woman shrieked, pointing at Faith wildly. “I want her charged!”

“Hey, lady, if I attacked you, you’d have much more than just a black eye, alright? And I sure as hell wouldn’t be dumb enough to hang around for the damn mall cops to catch me.”

“Okay, that’s enough,” the security guard interjected. “I don’t think anyone wants to see the police involved in this—”

“I do! Call them! Call the police!”

“Oh, come on!” Faith yelled, her patience completely gone. The last thing she needed was a visit from the cops. “Don’t you guys have cameras all through this place? Just look at the video, I’m sure you’ll see this bitch attack me over a scarf. A _scarf_. What kind of idiot cares that much about a damn scarf?”

“You! You’re the kind of idiot—”

“Ladies, please,” the security guard sighed. “Let’s just look at the video so we can settle this.”

“Great,” Faith said, grinning and tossing away the bloody tissue. “’Cause something tells me that the punch I thew in _self-defence_ was a damn good one.”

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Faith jogged out the front doors of the mall. She spotted Buffy right away, standing on her toes to better see through the crowd.

“There you are!” Buffy called out when she caught sight of her, and Faith winced at the irritated look on her face. “I was starting to worry I’d never see you again!”

“Aw, B, you know you’ll never be able to get rid of me.”

“What a relief,” she said dryly, but a smile was tugging at her lips.

Faith grinned at her. These days, every genuine smile she earned from Buffy was like a victory.

“Thanks for waitin’,” she said, bumping Buffy’s shoulder gently with her own. “You ready to get slayin’? I don’t know about you but I’m in the mood to hit something.”

“Getting in the Christmas spirit early this year?” Buffy teased. “I know spending time in malls has made me want to punch something more than once.”

“I don’t know how people do it, B! Plenty of people seem to be in there shopping for pleasure but, man, I couldn’t wait to get out of there and come meet you.”

“Yeah? I never knew you were that keen to spend time with me, Faith.”

“Yeah, well,” Faith said quickly, not meeting her eyes, “there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

Buffy sighed and looked away.

“Right, of course. Don’t you need to drop your stuff at home?” Buffy asked after a moment, looking down at Faith’s empty hands. “Wait, you didn’t buy anything? What the hell have you been doing in there for so long?”

“I had a little trouble findin’ what I needed,” Faith said with a shrug. “I guess I’ll try some other place tomorrow. No big deal.”

“Uh huh,” Buffy said, looking at her closely. “And are you going to tell me how you got blood on your lip or do you want me to guess?”

Buffy reached out a hand to touch Faith’s lip gently and Faith shuddered, before turning away to walk down the sidewalk.

“I had a bit of an issue with some lady who was gettin’ a little too grabby with a scarf I had my eye on,” Faith said with feigned nonchalance. “She took a swing at me.”

“She _what_?” Buffy demanded, looking furious as she trotted to keep up with Faith’s quick pace. “Where is she?”

“You plannin’ on defending my honour, B? I’m touched.”

“Do you need me to?”

“Nah,” Faith said easily, slinging an arm around Buffy’s shoulder, “I was just annoyed that I ended up stuck in mall jail for so long.”

“Mall jail?” Buffy said, smiling and putting her arm around Faith’s waist.

“Yeah, just about the most depressing place in all of Cleveland. I’m just lucky the security guard didn’t get me to empty my pockets, I would’ve had a hard time explaining the stake.”

Buffy laughed and said, “I once claimed I had a stake for self-protection. Which was true, I guess, but still weird.”

“Embrace the weird, I say,” Faith said, smiling down at her and squeezing her shoulder again.

They walked in step with each other for a minute in silence before Buffy spoke again.

“So, you never told me why you needed to go to the mall, anyway. Not really your scene, is it?”

“I was just gettin’ a bit of early Christmas shopping done, that’s all. Didn’t wanna leave it to the last minute like always.”

“Oh, you got a special someone you’re buying for this year?” Buffy asked, a grin spreading across her face. “Do tell.”

“Just you, B,” Faith said softly.

Buffy stopped in her tracks and dropped her arm from Faith’s waist. Faith looked back at her apprehensively.

“Me?” Buffy squeaked.

“Don’t look so shocked,” Faith said, laughing uncomfortably. “I just wanted to get you something decent this year.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, and it turns out you’re really hard to shop for.”

“No, I’m not!” Buffy cried, sounding indignant. “I’m easy.”

Faith smirked at her and said, “I’ve never found you easy, B. Definitely not with me.”

Buffy flushed a deep red and Faith grinned.

“You don’t have to get me anything anyway if I’m so difficult.”

“I _want_ to get you something,” Faith insisted. “I just wanted to get you something you would actually want and not some crap that you pretend to like.”

“I’ve never pretended to like anything about you, Faith.”

“Hey!”

Buffy smiled at her and Faith laughed, relieved to feel the tension ease again.

“So, do you want to tell me what you thinking of getting me? Or did you want to surprise me?”

“I was thinking I could ask Willow for suggestions,” Faith admitted. “Maybe Dawn.”

“You could ask _me_ for suggestions.”

“But then it won’t be a _surprise_ , Buffy.”

“My birthday is just around the corner, you know. You can surprise me then.”

“I thought you didn’t like surprises on your birthday,” Faith said suspiciously. “And since when do you celebrate your birthday? I thought you gave up on that back in Sunnydale?”

“I dunno,” Buffy said, looking shy all of a sudden. “I was thinking it might be nice to celebrate this year.”

“Next year, you mean.”

“Faith, I’m trying to have a moment here.”

“With me?” Faith scoffed.

“Forget it,” Buffy huffed, stalking away.

“Buffy!” Faith called out, jogging after her. “What’s wrong? What did I do?”

“Nothing, Faith. You didn’t do anything. Let’s go patrol.”

“Don’t pull that crap with me, B.”

“I’m not pulling anything with you.”

Buffy kept walking fast and refusing to look at her, so Faith grabbed her arm and spun her around.

“Come on, B, we were getting along so well. What the hell happened just now?”

Buffy huffed and looked down at her shoes. Faith decided to wait her out. No use making the situation worse by saying the wrong thing.

“I was just going to say that I wanted to celebrate my birthday.”

“Yeah, I got that part. So, what’s the problem?”

“I was going to say that I wanted to celebrate with _you_ ,” Buffy snapped, finally looking up at her. “But if you don’t want to—”

“Whoa!” Faith cried, holding her hands up placatingly. “You never gave me a chance to respond to that, B. You never said you wanted to celebrate with me.”

“Just forget it, okay? It was stupid. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Buffy! I don’t understand any of this, alright? I just don’t understand!”

“You don’t understand?” Buffy cried, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “You want me to make you understand?”

“Is that a threat?”

Buffy shook her head in disgust and said, “God, you really _don’t_ understand, do you?”

“Fine, make me understand, then!” Faith yelled, heedless of the people around them. “’Cause I’m obviously too stupid to—”

Her words were cut off abruptly when Buffy kissed her.

Faith froze, her eyes wide in shock as Buffy pressed her lips to hers softly. She made an embarrassing little noise in the back of her throat when Buffy pulled away, looking at her expectantly.

“So, do you get it now?” Buffy said, still sounding angry. “Do you _understand_?”

“Buffy,” Faith breathed before she was able to pull herself together. “Well, we need to try that again.”

“Huh?”

“Come on, B! We can do better than that!”

Faith grabbed Buffy by the hips and pulled her in for a second kiss. Buffy groaned and threaded her fingers through Faith’s hair, opening her mouth in encouragement. They kissed slowly for a few minutes more, completely lost in each other, until a car honked at them as they drove past, and Faith remembered where they were. She pulled back reluctantly and looked down at Buffy who smiled shyly back up at her.

“So, B,” Faith said, a smile spreading across her face. “Wanna come shopping with me tomorrow? There’s this girl I need to get a present for.”

“Yeah?” Buffy said playfully. “Who is this girl?”

“She’s the best girl I know,” Faith whispered. “I’m just crazy about her.”

“Really?”

“And I don’t wanna mess it up, you know. I wanna get her the perfect present for Christmas. You think you can help me out?”

“I’ll give it a shot.” Buffy leaned her head against Faith’s shoulder and hugged her gently. “But I don’t think you need to worry too much.”

“I don’t?”

“Nah, I bet she’s crazy about you too.”

Faith sucked in a breath and closed her eyes, resting her chin against the top of Buffy’s head.

“You think so?”

“Yeah,” Buffy whispered. “I do.”

Faith let out a relieved laugh and pulled back to look at Buffy.

“You know what, B? I think you’re right. This girl of mine must be crazy to want me.”

Buffy shook her head and laughed, grabbing Faith’s hand and starting to walk again.

“This girl would be crazy not to want you, Faith.”

Faith squeezed her hand and smiled.

“So, shopping tomorrow? I promise to try not to get in any fights.”

“Yeah, shopping tomorrow. Maybe you can help me pick something out as well.”

“Someone special, B?”

“Oh yeah. She’s very special.”

Faith sighed happily as they kept walking. This Christmas was starting to look better and better.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read/leave kudos/comment. I always appreciate it!
> 
> And if you'd like to request something special for one of the prompts, head on over to my tumblr (melacka.tumblr.com/) and send me a message or an ask. If I'm familiar with the fandom, I'll try to accommodate you.


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